AT&T Could Potentially Lose 40% of iPhone Customers to Verizon

Earlier this week, AT&T increased its early termination fees from $175 to $325 for existing customers new customers and customers who signed a new two year agreement, supposedly in a move that would keep current customers from leaving for other mobile carriers--specifically Verizon.

If Verizon--one of AT&T's biggest competitors--does manage to nab a CDMA version of the iPhone, AT&T could lose up to 40 percent of its iPhone users, according to Davenport and Co. analyst, F. Drake Johnstone.

Johnstone believes that as many of 6 million of the current 15 million iPhone faithful at AT&T could turn their away for a different mobile phone provider, and that's why they raised the fees on early termination. “AT&T is clearly worried that it will lose customers once a competing carrier such as Verizon begins carrying the iPhone,” he says.

Comments

I'm totally fed up with AT&T. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. If you call and ask to speak to a supervisor, you're told that one will call you back in six hours, but you never get a call back. Our family contract is up in July. If an iPhone is coming, we'll switch to it, otherwise, we'll probably go Android.

My contract is up this summer and I can't wait! AT&T has taken advantage of me for almost two years. I live 40 minutes from Harrisburg, the state capital in PA, and am surrounded by counties all with 3G. When i bought almost 2 years ago, the AT&T store told me 3G would be here in Lebanon by year-end. Then it was year-end the following year. Now they say it's never coming. Not to mention that 80% of the county plus the county seat can't even pull a reliable Edge signal. Routinely takes me 3 min. or more to load a web page. Have two Verizon 3G netbooks that work flawlessly. As soon as Verizon gets the iPhone, I'm dumping AT&T. It's so bad, I will switch to an Android if AT&T retains a monopoly. Enuf is enuf!

I'm no ATT fanboy. I've been OK with the coverage, but I think they charge too much particularly for things like texts ( 20 cents each without a plan - are you kidding ATT?) That said, I've been a Verizon customer and they are just as inflexible, and even more exorbitant in their charges (OK their coverage is marginally better, but I have friends on Verizon that drop calls all the time). The only real benefit will be the competition of the two (or more) companies. If ATT pulls their head out of their rear and gives its loyal customers incentives to stay instead of penalties to keep them from bailing, then we'll all benefit. If not, then C'est la vie - I'm getting what I signed up for and hopefully something will open up in the future.

You people are all lemmings.... if you hear a little rumor about Verizon getting the iPhone and you believe it MUST be coming... But don't we remember 2 weeks ago when Apple said that AT&T had a FIVE YEAR EXCLUSIVE DEAL???????? I've said it once, and I'll say it again, There is NO VERIZON IPHONE COMING ANY TIME SOON.... Also, to all the people posting about a 4G Iphone, no carrier has a legit 4G network. so there will probably wont be a "4G" iPhone till 2012

As well as a CDMA iphone, an easy rollout for apple would be a t-mobile version. Basically the only change they would have to make is to adjust the frequency of the 3g radio. That's it, otherwise the phone is 100% ready for t-mobile, and for that VERY small expense they would gain another big influx of customers.

That being said, I am with t-mobile and would consider going to verizon for an iphone. I use an unlocked iphone with t-mobile currently and miss out on 3g internet speeds.

Yep, I'm going to gladly pay 175.00 fee to jump ship from US Cellular to get the Verizon version of the iphone. I've been waiting and praying for them to get this phone and it looks like it might finally be happening!

I am one AT&T customer that would stay (for a while anyway). The smart move is to wait that wave out. Verizons network will be overwhelmed with that initial exodus. Their network is better than AT&T, but it may not hold up much better in that first few months. Imagine all the current Verizon customers that will switch to an iPhone. Now add all those AT&T folks jumping ship to Verizon. 6 million "switchers" plus several million Verizon "potential" iPhone users. That spells trouble for a while until they get a handle on the total drain.

On the other hand, AT&T customers should see a substantial increase in service as the bandwidth is not being bogged down by every iPhone user. I would imagine AT&T will see a boost in performance.

I think that's pretty conservative. I don't know anyone who plans on sticking around, regardless of the termination fee. The bummer is, I'm betting that Apple will announce the 4G, with AT&T only, and a few months later roll out new carrier(s); which will cause people to re-up their AT&T contracts (with the higher fee)in order to get the new phone, then a month or two later, buy a NEW iPhone CDMA 4G in order to use Verizon's network. Good for Apple, bad for it
s customers. One thing is certain, now would be a good time to dump AT&T stock.